SDSU’S ESCOBAR MOVING UP
THE CHARTS

Aztec standout may go in second round

Gone are the days where NFL tight ends mainly served as extra blockers who caught occasional short passes.

In today’s complicated offenses, the tight end has become a bona fide receiving weapon.

That’s why Notre Dame’s Tyler Eifert is generally regarded as the best tight end prospect in the 2013 NFL Draft.

The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Mackey Award winner was a lethal receiving threat for the Irish, finished with 50 receptions for 685 yards last season.

He has turned heads for his athleticism and receiving abilities, and he is the only tight end who’s a lock for the first round.

Stanford’s Zach Ertz was formerly considered the second-best tight end prospect in the draft. But over the last few weeks, San Diego State’s Gavin Escobar has been climbing draft boards.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has proclaimed Escobar one of the 10 biggest risers of this year’s draft class.

“It’s a tight end crazy league and outside of Tyler Eifert, nobody in the draft class has a better set of hands than Escobar,” Kiper wrote in an ESPN Insider post. “He’ll look like a power forward splitting the seam, and where I once saw a mid-round sleeper, I now see a safe bet for Round 2.”

That’s good news for Escobar, who was projected as a second- or third-round pick when he first decided to forgo his senior season at SDSU and come out early for the draft.

NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock has Escobar ranked as the third-best tight end in the draft, but rates him at the same level as Eifert and Ertz.

“On paper, Eifert, Ertz and Escobar are very similar body types: 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, plus or minus, all three of whom have excellent ball skills,” Mayock said on a recent conference call with reporters. “On paper, it looks like they are pretty similar.”

The difference lies in their speed.

According to Mayock, Eifert is just a little faster than Ertz, while Ertz has better explosion than Escobar — who ran a 4.84 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, but improved with a 4.70 at his Pro Day.

Since Pro Day in March, Escobar has visited with the Eagles, Panthers, Browns and Chargers and worked out with the Eagles, Falcons and Raiders.

“With most of them, I met with all the offensive coaches and the tight end coaches,” Escobar said. “You get a feel for the place and walk around, sometimes you watch some film with them.”

Mayock projects that Escobar will likely go in the third round.

Thereafter, Cincinnati’s Travis Kelce and Rice’s Vance McDonald round out the list of top five tight ends in the draft.

Both guys played positions other than tight end in college, and will need to develop their positional skill set to distinguish themselves in the pros.

Kelce was a former quarterback who has only played one year at tight end. He’s considered a raw prospect, but has superior blocking ability.

McDonald lined up mostly at slot receiver at Rice and has shown that he can catch the ball and get yards after the catch. But he’ll have to learn to use his 6-foot-4, 267-pound frame more effectively in the NFL.